Hello everyone! I am still here, and still working on this story. I know I have been quiet, but real life has been intense. Work and personally. But never fear, I am fully intending to keep writing this story, and I have another chapter mostly written, so will post again next week. Thanks, as ever, to my readers and especially to my reviewers.

Chasing Up

I was frustrated. There was no other way of putting it, I was frustrated.

We had had Morelli's file for four days now and were no closer to finding him. Carlos and I had met with Bobby and Hector the day after I picked up the file. We had talked through our strategies and reaffirmed that Carlos and Hector were going to stake out Stark Street and talk to Ramirez, while Bobby and I were going to stake out Morelli's apartment for Mooch Morelli and try and talk to any contacts we had about news of Joe.

Carlos and I had also broken into Joe Morelli's apartment that afternoon; well, kinda. Carlos had spoken to the super and got a key. We went in, found the place a typical bachelor pad, 'appropriated' the phone bill and an address book for more leads, and picked up a set of spare keys on the way out. According to Carlos, that was so we had access back in if we needed it. We hadn't got any solid leads, though. The address book turned out to be Morelli's version of a 'little black book' and I had called a few of the women that looked like they might be newer entries, but each time I had struck out. The phone bill was uninformative, and no flags popped up.

Carlos and Hector had not yet spotted Morelli on Stark Street. The chat with Ramirez the next day had been… interesting. After the visit, Carlos had come back to the office, told me I was never to go within ten miles of Ramirez, then left to go running for the next two hours. He had eventually come back to my apartment, flushed and sweaty, but looking slightly calmer. After a long shower and a longer drink of water, he told me about the visit.

"What upset you so much, Carlos?" I asked in concern.

"That… thing is a piece of shit. I've seen some of the worst examples of humanity during my time in the Army, but that fuckwit is beyond crap on my boots. I was serious, Steph, never go anywhere near to him. It only took two minutes of conversation to understand his attitude to women. They are toys to play with and to break; he is clearly very violent to women. The way he spoke about Carmen Sanchez… I really wouldn't be surprised if he beat her and raped her to death. If she doesn't show up soon, then it's a serious possibility. I almost feel sorry for Morelli if he really is trying to find Sanchez," Carlos mused as he took another gulp of water. "If I had gone there alone, I would have had to fight my way out. As it was, Hector pulled his knives and I had to pull my gun to get out of there unscathed. Ramirez is insane, Babe. Truly unhinged. He thinks he can do anything to anyone, and nobody can touch him. If he came near you, if he touched you… Well, let's just say I'd have to make sure they wouldn't find the body."

Carlos sighed and I moved over to sit beside him and put my head on his shoulder. He seemed to need comfort and I was happy to give it. "I promise, Carlos. I won't put myself on his radar. Do you think he'll try to come after you, though?"

"I don't know. He might. Like I said, he's truly unhinged. I earned my skills in the Rangers, and I've been involved in Black Ops work. I've seen people who are violently insane before. It's something in the eyes. A feral look: like there are no limits and no boundaries; like they themselves are truly their only consideration. A depth of… I don't know. Evil maybe. Behind the eyes. He's definitely got it. I think we need to regroup and come up with a better security plan. We need to make sure we have backup and don't go out alone. And it's going to be difficult to watch Ramirez while we're searching for Morelli. I think we need more men."

Carlos paused and looked thoughtful, "I'm going to call and see if Tank or Les can come up. And we need to look around to see if we can find more people locally. Marco mentioned an old friend of the family who has been working for the Philly PD and has just taken early retirement from the police. He's originally from Newark and his brother used to date my sister Celia. Nickname was Zip or Zap or something. I'll call Marco and see if I can get in touch. And Tank got a call from a Navy buddy of his that I've also worked with once. He's been based in Atlantic City doing casino security, but he's currently at a loose end. Name's… Manuel, I think… Tank called him Manny? I'll see if he's interested. Even if they only want a bit of contract work, we need more eyes on the ground."

I nodded, "I'm going out with Bobby tomorrow for surveillance on Morelli's apartment. If the mail build up is any indicator, Mooch Morelli might show up. Hopefully, we can find Morelli without ever seeing Ramirez again." Carlos looked doubtful but nodded.

"Hector and I will go back tomorrow and case out Stark. We'll talk to the locals, other hookers, bar owners. See if anything turns up."

I reached up to kiss him, "Be careful. Make sure you don't get shot or beaten up."

Carlos looked at me with a smirking arrogant expression, "Babe," was all he said.

Bobby and I were entering hour two of the surveillance on the apartment. I was seriously antsy. We had played twenty questions and a couple of other car games to try and entertain ourselves, but this was like watching paint dry.

"Hey, Bobby," I asked as a thought occurred, "Do you know anyone else locally who would be qualified to work for Rangeman Trenton?"

Bobby shot me a quick glance, "Umm," he mused, "maybe." Bobby looked thoughtful for a minute or so, before continuing, "I know one of my buddies who used to work for NYPD moved down here a couple of years ago because his wife got a job at Princeton University. He was a member of a SWAT team in NY, pretty highly trained sniper. His name's Raymond Albany; goes by Ram. I spoke to him a couple of months ago and he said he was super bored in his job; he got a job in the local Municipality in the parks and recreation. I'm pretty sure he'd jump at a chance to work somewhere like Rangeman, and he's a really good guy."

"He sounds pretty ideal. I can imagine Ranger would love to have someone like a sniper working in the team, and his SWAT experience would be great for bond enforcement." I admitted. "I'll mention him to Carlos. He was saying we need to start recruiting more locally."

Bobby smiled at me briefly and switched his attention back to watching Morelli's apartment building. I repressed a sigh. "I'm thinking of something," I said.

A smirk crossed Bobby's face, "Animal, vegetable, or mineral?" he riposted. Eleven guesses and five minutes later Bobby picked my animal of a rattlesnake.

"You're too quick at this game," I grumbled.

He chuckled, "It was a favourite for car trips with my family. I got lots of practice." We fell silent again as we watched the apartment and I had to stop myself from fidgeting.

Finally, twenty long minutes later, a car pulled up in front of Morelli's apartment building and I recognised Mooch Morelli as he climbed out of the car and wandered toward Morelli's front door. I nudged Bobby, but he was already focusing the camera on Mooch to capture him entering the apartment. He was in there for about fifteen minutes, and I was excited when he exited carrying not a stack of mail, but a small duffle bag.

Bobby met my eyes and I whispered he should start the car and move up a couple of blocks to wait for Mooch to pass us. Bobby complied and we moved up two blocks and parked again but kept the car running. I scootched down in the seat to be less visible, in case Mooch might recognise me. While we waited for Mooch to drive up beside us, I quickly filled Bobby in on all the strategies for tailing a car that Tank, Lester, and Carlos had shared with me. Bobby nodded and began to use the strategies as Mooch drove past, waiting until he was more than block ahead to move out again and begin following.

I had used the camera to snap a picture of the license plate as he passed, and I tried to note something about the car that we could recognise. But it was a boring white Buick LeSabre and I just tried to keep it firmly in view while Bobby concentrated on driving. Luckily, Mooch was not driving fast, and quietly made his way toward a more industrial part of town. The buildings were pretty run-down in this area, and Bobby and I fell back even further not to draw attention to ourselves, since the traffic had thinned out a lot. Eventually he pulled up in front of an abandoned manufacturing warehouse and Bobby pulled up behind a dumpster beside the next building. Mooch jumped out, picking up the duffle, and I scrunched down again as he looked around furtively, before making his way into the abandoned building. This time he was only in there a couple of minutes, and when he emerged, he was not carrying the duffle. We waited until he had driven away.

Bobby's hand came down on my arm as I moved to open the door, and he asked, "What are you doing, Steph?"

I looked at him puzzled, "Going in the building. Morelli's in there. We can pick him up and take him in!" I exclaimed excitedly.

Bobby shook his head at me, "First of all, we don't know that Morelli is in there. There's a pretty good chance, I agree, but we need to confirm it. We need to sight him. Second of all, he is likely armed, and probably dangerous if he is cornered and doesn't want to come with us. We need equipment and weapons and backup, Steph. We need to do more surveillance and we need to make sure we do it right. If we go charging in and he gets away from us, he'll move away from here since we know where he's holed up. And then we'll be back to square one."

I slumped into my seat, realising that Bobby was right. About everything. "Sorry, Bobby," I muttered, chagrined. "I guess I got overexcited and carried away. I… I'm just worried about Carlos and Hector, you know. Carlos says that Benito Ramirez is insane and unhinged, and I'm worried about them working on Stark Street. I just thought if we could get Morelli now, it would be over, and they'd be safe. But you're right. We need to do what you said."

Bobby smiled at me sympathetically and reached over to squeeze my hand. "Not to worry, Steph," he reassured me, "We've got a great lead now. And I know I haven't known him as long as you, but Ranger seems like he can take care of himself. Hector too." I nodded, resigned.

We settled back in to wait again but didn't have to wait long. It was only about thirty minutes later that Joe Morelli emerged from the warehouse building. As soon as I saw the movement, I had scootched down into my seat as far as I could, and this time, Bobby mirrored me. Mooch didn't know Bobby, but Morelli had met him. Despite my low opinion of Joe Morelli, I knew he was a good detective, and he would spot us if we made any mistakes.

We were in Bobby's car, and it was a nondescript black sedan with dark windows, so that was good. Very carefully, I snuck my camera up as he looked away from us and took several quick snaps of him. He walked carefully over to another abandoned building and disappeared into the shadows of the bottom floor, through a large open door, hanging off the hinges. A minute later, we heard the muffled sound of a car engine and again, I snuck my camera up to snap pictures as the car emerged through the doorway. From my semi-hidden position behind the dash, it looked like a beige or brown van he was driving that had a few antennas sticking out of it. Probably trying to look like a TV repair van or something. I lowered the camera and tried to scrunch down even more as Morelli's van passed where we were parked. He drove off, apparently not seeing anything suspicious, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Should we try and follow him?" Bobby asked me.

I thought for a minute, and then shook my head. "I'm pretty sure he'd spot us, and like you said, that would just lose any advantage we have. Whatever else he is, he's a good detective, and I'm just not that confident about our tailing skills. No offense," I added a bit sheepishly.

Bobby smiled, "None taken. I'm no expert at tailing a car. Not something they teach you as a paramedic. So, what do you think we should do now?"

I considered, "Maybe we should go into the building? See if we can spot where he has his hideout?"

Bobby thought about that, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. But we need to be careful in case he comes back. We don't take unnecessary risks and we watch each other's backs. One of us is near the windows at all times, keeping an eye out over the street. And we don't touch anything in case he knows it's been moved around."

I could see Bobby's reasoning with all that. "Yeah," I agreed, "That's a good plan."

We moved quietly out of the car and made our way up to the building. We moved carefully, but with purpose, trying not to look like we were sneaking around. We went confidently in through the door Morelli had exited and closed it behind us. There were no electric lights, but the daylight filtered through the smoggy windows. The bottom floor looked like a large, open space, probably the manufacturing floor for whatever was made here. It was littered with junk and rusty equipment, and I couldn't see any obvious spots for Morelli to be staying. In front of us was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor and Bobby nodded as I gestured toward the staircase.

The stairs were scuffed with dust but disturbed enough that I was confident they were used recently. We moved up and saw a row of what looked like offices along the wall beside the staircase. The door at the far end was closed and the one beside it was ajar, while the rest were wide open. We moved along the row, looking into rooms, thick with dust and piled with junk. We hit the jackpot with the room with the door ajar. About half of the room had been roughly cleaned, with the junk pushed to the other side and dusted, probably with a rag. There was a bedroll on the floor with the small duffle bag beside it. And a small pile of clothes that looked like a couple of t-shirts and pairs of socks. There was also a pizza box from a generic chain restaurant and some empty beer and soda cans.

I snapped a couple of pictures of the room and the corridor, and we were careful to leave the door ajar as it had been. The room beside his hideout with the door closed turned out to be a bathroom, the toilet seat up and a slightly smudged cake of soap on the sink. I spotted a plastic bag with some shaving equipment and a hair comb in it. Bingo. We had definitely found Morelli's hideout.

While I took pictures, Bobby had been looking out across the warehouse to the windows, watching for signs of a car returning. None did, though, and we moved quickly and quietly back downstairs and slipped out the door to walk briskly to the car. As we slid inside, I could not help a slight sigh of relief and satisfaction of a job well done. I grinned across to Bobby and he grinned back at me, equally satisfied.

So, they found Morelli! Still trying to incorporate canon, with a twist! So, the question is now, do they just bring Morelli in? Do they try to help him? Does Steph meet Lula? Do they catch Ramirez and Jimmy Alpha? Your thoughts, ideas, and guesses are welcomed! Please review. :)